‘The worst of thieves’ who faked suicide headed to prison

Published 10:22 pm, Thursday, January 17, 2013

An Enumclaw insurance salesman who faked his own suicide after he was caught raiding his clients’ accounts is likely headed to federal prison.

Caught after falsifying a client’s death, Aaron Travis Beaird cost his clients – friends and family, mostly – about $6 million during the long-running fraud. Beaird, a then-married father of three, abandoned his car and sent suicide notes to his clients after being discovered, then surrendered after fleeing to Scotland.

Now, federal prosecutors in Seattle contend Beaird, 39, deserves a six-year prison sentence when he is sentenced Friday afternoon by U.S. District Judge Ricardo Martinez.

A college dropout and self-styled financial adviser, Beaird launched his fraud nearly a decade ago, shortly after moving to Enumclaw and going to work in financial services.

Working under a more experienced salesman, Beaird dealt in high-premium life insurance policies and annuities. Both were meant as investments for his clients, a group of friends and family of modest means who trusted Beaird with their retirement funds.

His business, though, was built “on a foundation of lies and deceit” that ultimately cost his clients millions of dollars, Assistant U.S. Attorney James Oesterle opined.

Beaird lied to his clients about the annuities and life insurance policies he sold them while skimming money from his clients’ payments. To conceal the thefts, he provided his clients with doctored account statements and redirected correspondence from the life insurance companies to a post office box he owned.

Beyond the money, Beaird’s betrayal cost his clients their trust.

“Mr. Beaird is the worst of thieves,” one of those conned by Beaird said in a letter to the court. “He has stolen from the elderly, a widow, the blind, his family, and his wife’s family. He has stolen from trusted friends.”

“This whole situation has been like a kick in the gut for me,” another said in a letter. “I find that I have kind of lost the spark in my life. It is difficult to relate to people in social situations and to put my trust in anyone or anything.”

Beaird’s fraud paid off, at least for a time. The thefts remained undetected until Beaird pushed too far by attempting to collect death benefits on a client who – inconveniently for Beaird – was still living.

In the fall of 2011, under intensifying financial pressure as his other business ventures failed, Beaird secretly pulled $500,000 from the man’s investment account and bought a life insurance policy for him. Months later, Beaird forged a claim asserting the man had died.

The deception was discovered during a routine review of the claim – as it turns out, life insurance companies check such things. Confronted, Beaird admitted to the lie; then he disappeared.

Two days later his car was found near Deception Pass, on a high span connecting Whidbey and Fidalgo islands. Suicide letters, typed and mailed to his clients, arrived days later. At the time, Beaird also had an $8 million life insurance policy that would have been paid to his wife.

In truth, a taxi had spirited Beaird from Deception Pass to Sea-Tac Airport, where he boarded a flight to Scotland. He returned to Seattle a week later, was arrested on arrival and immediately copped to the fraud.

In an unusual turn, Beaird gave a prompt and full confession to the FBI, which had just begun investigating his dealings. He pleaded guilty to fraud charges two months later.

A leader in his church, Beaird found his victims among the flock as well as his family. Most were people of modest means looking for a low-risk investment to protect their life savings. From these people, Beaird took or squandered $5.7 million.

“The monetary toll exacted by Mr. Beaird is matched or exceeded by the emotional devastation those losses have visited on his victims, most of whom were either family members or fellow members of his faith community,” Oesterle told the court.

In letters to the court, several of his victims described the damage Beaird has done to them.

“I considered Travis a very trusted and loyal friend and adviser,” one woman wrote. “He took everything my husband and I worked our entire life to build. He left me broke at 61, a distraught widow.”

“Travis Beaird is a predator,” another victim told the court. “He was a personal friend, and betrayed all the trust that was given to him. As a result, we continue to live in a travel trailer while we struggle to come up with enough money to continue building our home that he knew we were using our equity money to build.”

Compounding Beaird’s betrayal is the reality that, as a practical matter, he will not repay his victims anytime soon. While he has pledged to refill the retirement funds and savings accounts he raided, his own attorney acknowledged Beaird will likely spend the rest of his life attempting to do so.

In a letter to the court, Beaird described himself as deeply ashamed of his actions and regretful of their cost.

“I had everything going for me in life, such high hopes, a beautiful family and good intentions,” Beaird said in the letter. “Not a day goes by that I haven’t wished I could go back and make things right.”

Writing the court, Beaird’s public defender suggested Beaird “invested” much of the money he stole from his clients in his other businesses. Like the fraud, those ventures also failed.

“Unfortunately, none of the many companies he started proved successful as he lacked any real business experience and simply had too many projects going to manage them all,” defense attorney Nancy Tenney told the court.

“Mr. Beaird has lost his professional license, his business, his wife, all material assets, as well as his reputation,” Tenney continued.

Given that Beaird had never been arrested before the current case, he deserves a sentence short enough for him to make amends, the defense attorney added, suggesting 2 ½ years in prison is sufficient.